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Martian rock found in Sahara is 2 billion years old

Image Credit: Carl Agee, University of New Mexico

A year back a coal coloured, baseball-size meteorite was discovered in the Sahara desert. It later turned out to be a rock from Mars!

A year long study of the rock has revealed that the rock is around 2 billion years old and contains more water than other Martian rocks found till date. The rock is similar to the volcanic rocks examined on Mars by the NASA rovers Spirit and Opportunity.

The research was led by Carl Agee at the University of New Mexico, US. The meteorite NorthWestAfrica(NWA) 7034 has been nicknamed “Black Beauty”.

Black Beauty once again brings out the question that water did exist on planet Mars millions of years ago, then how did it disappear?